


Settled

by egosoffire



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Asexuality, Multi, Polyamory, Sweetness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 08:01:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16970805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egosoffire/pseuds/egosoffire
Summary: Steve had never imagined that the word settled would ever describe his life, but somehow it now did. As the world recovered from its latest cosmic level threat, he somehow lived in an apartment with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, the two greatest men he had ever known.





	Settled

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Marvel Trumps Hate.

Steve had never imagined that the word  _ settled  _ would ever describe his life, but somehow it now did. As the world recovered from its latest cosmic level threat, he somehow lived in an apartment with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, the two greatest men he had ever known.

Yeah, if this was a settled life, he could deal with being a settled man.

Their relationship dangled on the edge of many lines, and could not be easily defined, but it brought a soldier from a time long before home. Could three men be boyfriends? Dating didn‘t seem to be a strong enough word to describe what they had. The conventional labels for a relationship did not fit Steve, Sam and Bucky but oh did they fit in with his needs, with his life.

Bucky had recovered so well, given all he had been through. The changes in his brain, crafted by a sixteen-year-old genius, had allowed him to sort his memories and confront them. Bucky remembered more, his mind clearer and more his own than any of them imagined possible.

“Do you remember my girlfriend, Sally?” Bucky asked one day, while they sat outside. The apartment had a small patio area, a balcony on the second floor they had thrown two lawn chairs out onto. Steve sat near Bucky, looking out on the city.

“Oh, yeah.” It surprised Steve that he remembered, but his mind conjured the image of a pretty girl with a wicked smile. She had the appearance of someone who was up to something. “She was feisty. You must have had a type.”

“We’d broken up by the time the war started,” Bucky said, “but I slept with her two nights before I deployed.”

That surprised Steve. It was a well-known fact to both he and Sam that Bucky was not into sex. He didn’t want to involve himself with them, sexually, even though he very much existed as a part of their romantic triad and loved them both.

Sam took that moment to walk out onto the patio behind them. He wore worn pajama bottoms and a grey t-shirt. He yawned.

“Why are you two always up so goddamned early?” he asked squinting against the sun. “Super senses or something?”

“Or something,” Bucky murmured. “Us old men were just reminiscing, talking about one of my ex-girlfriends."

“One of ‘em?” he asked.  “Sergeant Barnes, were you actually such a player?”

“I was,” Bucky replied with a cheesy grin. The words made his face light up and he smiled. Steve looked over at Sam and for a moment caught on his face the same joy that Steve himself felt. Bucky had taken a long time to get to this point, the point where he could smile with them. “I also felt such an extreme pressure to do something meaningful before shipping off. So, I slept with her two nights beforehand." 

“What happened?” Sam asked, a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. He then let go and sat down on Bucky’s lap, tilting his legs up and his head back. 

“I hated it,” Bucky murmured, wrapping both arms around Sam’s waist. “You know sex doesn’t bother me, but it felt like the most fake shit I’ve ever tried, with her. I was phoning it in, and so was she and it was just… embarrassing.”

“Well, that’s kind of good for you now, though, right?” Sam murmured. “Because now you realized this is a part of you.”

“Sometimes I wish it wasn’t,” Bucky admitted. He nudged up, stood and Sam followed him to the edge of the balcony fencing. “I mean, I know you and Steve say it doesn’t matter…”

“Because it doesn’t,” Steve pointed out.

“It still makes me feel like I don’t bring enough to the table,” he replied. “I hear you two when you go at it, you know?”

Steve joined them at the edge of the balcony and put a hand on both of their shoulders. His hand on Bucky’s left was strange, the false arm cold against his palm, but it comforted him all the same. It brought a calmness to Steve, and he hoped Bucky felt it too.

“I still have a hard time with the idea that there’s nothing wrong with me,” he admitted. He had received it repeatedly and not only from the two men who existed as his entire world. They had spared no expense bringing him resources, making sure he recognized there was nothing wrong. Hell, Sam had even brought one of his sister’s friends to talk with him, make sure he recognized it wasn’t trauma, or his past. “I know you must think it’s stupid…”

“No, it’s not stupid,” Sam said, nudging Bucky by nudging Steve into him. “Culture can be overwhelming, man.”

“Steve weighs like a thousand pounds, don’t do that.”

Steve glared at him.

“Do you guys still...feel the same way about me?” Bucky asked, flipping so that his back was to the fence. He then slunk down until he was in a seated position. Sam and Steve reacted almost as one, joining him sitting on the floor. For three grown men, this might look silly, but it was a comfortable position to be in. Bucky broke into a smile and Steve knew his heart and Sam’s were being melted at the same time.  “I mean, does the fact I don’t want  _ that  _ make me less?”

Sam rolled his eyes. Bucky looked up, shocked, then he realized why Sam was rolling his eyes. The guy often used humor to make difficult conversations easier, and Bucky found that one of his favorite things about Sam.

“No, it does not make you less,” he huffed, rolling his eyes again. “Did you think Steve and I loved you exclusively st for your great ass?”

“No, but…”

“Or those soulful blue puppy dog eyes?” Sam asked.

“We love you because we love you,” Steve said, taking his hand. Bucky clasped his hand, looking down at their tangled fingers. It was comforting, something that made his heart feel light. “We love you because you’re the best…”

“Well, now that’s over-the-top, Cap,” Sam said with a wry grin. “The best?”

“Yes, the best,” Steve said. “The three of us here, settled,  is something I could have never dreamed of.”


End file.
